SEMI-FINAL/SARACENS v MUNSTER: Gerry Thornleytalks to a proud Kiwi with whom Munster have struck gold

LIFEIMI MAFI had youth and rich promise, while Doug Howlett came with obvious fanfare, but Munster fans weren't so sure what they were getting with Rua Tipoki. Given he was 32, and had some high-profile disciplinary issues, there were those who wondered was he just winding his career up with a retirement cheque. But in the event, the nomadic centre of proud Maori heritage has fitted in like a glove. Munster have struck gold again.

For sure his motives, as with so many of his compatriots, were partly financial, but he came with something to prove, and the teak-tough centre has given additional composure and leadership to the back line.

He is not cut from the Trevor Halstead cloth, but his devastating sidestep, offloading, workrate and left boot have helped give Munster another dimension. À la Halstead, as he showed with a man-of-the-match performance in Gloucester, he also rises to the occasion.

His hard edge and sociable personality have made him a big hit in the dressingroom too - "A great lad, you couldn't meet better," says one colleague simply - and the benefits have been reciprocal. For Tipoki, the best aspect of rugby is the friendships.

"I've moved around a lot and played for a lot of different teams, and you get a guy like Axel Foley who'll just die for the Munster jersey. I'm the kind of guy who's proud to play for his jersey, but I play for my friends around me. That's why Munster's been so good for me. I've got good friends here and that's what it's all about for me."

These are the weeks he loves particularly. The media and public hype, the extra edge in the camp.

"It's been awesome. I suppose because we've been winning it's been great. Now we've got ourselves into a position we can play in one of the big matches, and that's where you want to be as a rugby player, especially at this stage of my career. For some of the younger guys, like Tomás O'Leary and Denis Hurley, they're just ecstatic about playing rugby every week without it having to be part of a big game. But being part of the squad this week is huge."

Only two things darken his landscape: the travelling to and fro between Cork and Limerick, and the weather. But he has been pleasantly taken aback at playing in such an experienced team compared to the relatively callow teams he's usually played with back home.

Born in Te Puia Springs, he grew up as a single child in Gisborne, home town of Rico Gear, and the two were on the same school side: "My dad brought me up, and we were sort of on the poor side of town. It was a happy upbringing. My dad was a shearer so we moved around a bit, but we had our home in Gisborne."

From the moment he could run, rugby dominated: games in back gardens with friends and cousins, or with 30 or 40 kids after school in the public park.

"There was huge talent but it's a lower socio-economic area. Rico and myself were schoolboy stars, but others couldn't come through because of things like drugs and alcohol. But I'm looking to move back there after rugby and hopefully help some young fellas come through.

"Where I grew up there were a lot of broken homes and broken families, but I was lucky that my dad looked after me. There was always heaps of love and support from him. Like I said, there was a lot of talent around there but it was more the parenting that led to kids getting into trouble. I was just so lucky that I had my dad."

He attended Waikiri Kiri School, and aside from the influence of his father (who played inside centre for East Coast), Tipoki attributes much of his rugby career to the Maori culture his father imbued in him. This, he says, taught him to treat people, the land and the sea with respect, and has given him a clear sense of pride.

"I think that might be why I'm different from a lot of my friends who went the other way. It's pretty tough to explain, but I think an identity crisis is why a lot of people end up turning to alcohol and getting into trouble and stuff. I think my Maori culture is something that gives you a sense of dignity, and something to be proud of, rather than be ashamed. A lot of people our age back home don't know their Maori culture but they're not white, so they're a bit ashamed."

When his father became a teacher, they moved to Auckland, where Tipoki went to university and joined the Auckland Marist club. With exposure in a big city, his rugby began to take off. After a breakthrough with the New Zealand Sevens, he climbed the representative ladder in a nomadic career with East Coast, Bay of Plenty and North Harbour (winning the Ranfurly Shield with the latter two in 2004 and 2006, the second as captain) as well as the Auckland Blues and Canterbury Crusaders, and a brief stint in Japan. The "ultimate" was being on the Maori team that beat the Lions in Hamilton in 2005.

"A generation might get to play the Lions once, and they might not," he points out. "I was proud to be in a generation that did get to play them and beat them for the first time ever. So that was definitely the ultimate for me."

After that match, the Maoris' long-time coach Matt Te Pou (whose son has lived, played and coached in Limerick with Young Munster and Old Crescent) introduced him to Ronan O'Gara and Paul O'Connell.

"They asked me would I be interested in coming over, and I said, 'shit, yeah!' But things happened and I wasn't able to get an early release."

The Munster notion remained with him, but having been detained last year by the Crusaders he thought his chance might have gone. Aside from a few offers in England and France, he was dissuaded by his wife from going to Japan.

"I wasn't sure that Munster was going to be still on for me. But I'm so glad I'm here now."

Tipoki was also involved in a couple of well documented off-the-ball punches on Jean de Villiers and James Hilgendorf, the latter crime earning him the stigma of the longest suspension ever (16 weeks) in the Super 14.

Tipoki's Harbour coach Allan Pollock described him as a "tortured genius", explaining: "A large part of Rua constantly feels he has to prove himself. It's a constant battle - he's always trying to prove he's as good as the next fella." Significantly though, he made Tipoki his captain.

The "tortured genius" provided further scope for slagging in the Munster dressingroom. He laughs at that, though admits he "had to develop a bit of maturity and get around a few discipline issues. Like I said, the area I grew up in was pretty rough and the boundaries weren't as clear as somebody being brought up on the other side of town. That was the background I came into the professional environment from.

"I lived in the country and those were the rules I lived by. But then all of a sudden I was living in the city and playing professional rugby, and didn't make the transition as well as I would have had I known."

His wife, Mihi, and four children have settled in well in the southside of Cork. With neat symmetry, his eldest, Naera, has been quickly nicknamed Niall by his new school friends, which pleases Tipoki no end.

"In our Maori language that's actually what it means; it's taken from the Bible and the river Nile. So I was rapt when I heard that."

Next in line is Manahi; their one girl, Mihingarangi, who is generally called Bubba; and Ngarimu, who was born in Cork two weeks after they landed. Naera is 10 today, though to Tipoki's slight concern his eldest has taken eagerly to hurling.

"I'm not happy," says Tipoki, laughing. "I've already had to take him to the dentist because he split his teeth. He goes to training with Douglas football club every Monday, and I watch him and I'm hoping the skills he picks up there will help him when he goes back to playing rugby."

He also has his sidekick Mafi and now Howlett as constant companions. Team-mates chide Tipoki that he and Mafi are joined at the hip, any time they're apart asking him, "Where's your shadow, Rua, where's your tail?"

But his admiration for Mafi, whom he had played against but never with, is palpable; he describes him as one of the most underrated players in Europe: "You see locks and frontrowers running into him and he just cuts them in half. He's got electric pace, he's got an awesome pass - he's pretty much got it all. If he keeps his head down and keeps doing what he's doing he's just going to get better and better."

He's played with Howlett all the way through Auckland Colts to the Blues: "He's class, on and off the pitch."

He's been blown away too, by the support Munster enjoy, especially at Thomond Park on Heineken Cup days - only the Maoris' win over the Lions equates to it in his experience.

He's watched the DVD of Munster's Cup final win over Biarritz several times and wants some of it badly.

"I want to win the Heineken Cup. I've said it repeatedly. As Kiwis, the ultimate would be to play for the All Blacks, but now that we're here the ultimate is to win the Heineken Cup. That's it."